MARINA DEL REY, Calif. — ICANN on Wednesday signed a contract with operators of the new .sexy gTLD to begin service.
The .sexy gTLD was submitted by Uniregistry Corp. to provide Internet users and companies with a "sexy way to express their interests."
Uniregistry, according to its application, plans to add directory services, traffic-generation toolkits and search-related functionalities that will promote the domain. In addition, it plans to implement safeguards to protect intellectual property.
Three other gTLDs — including .menu, .uno and a Chinese-language domain known as xn-rhqv96g — were signed up Wednesday. ICANN has now signed contracts covering 26 new gTLD applications.
Already, some registrars are taking preregistrations for the gTLD but launch dates have not been set.
Uniregistry plans a launch sequence with a trademark sunrise stage for current brand and trademarks, a Landrush registration period for entities and individuals who do not own a trademark in the name they wish to register (if more than one landrush application is received for the same .sexy domain, the .sexy domain will usually go to auction) and a general availability stage. The company also will sell premium and reserved names at auction.
Cayman Islands-based Uniregistry, which has applied for 54 gTLDs, investing $9.9 million in application fees for such proposals as the now-approved .tattoo and .sexy, is owned by Frank Schilling.
Schilling has been a long-time participant in the business of investing in domain names, particularly with expiring domain names. Two years ago he launched InternetTraffic.com and the DomainNameSales.com marketplace, the largest privately owned domain traffic monetization platform on the web.